OxyNeo, specifically polyethylene oxide

[ontariobuds]

Good morning everybody,

I have searched high and low and maybe the answer lies within the forums but I guess I suck at searching.

I have used the oven method for the new formulation of OxyNeo and it seems to work great. I wanted to know what chemical causes the tablet to gel up and I have narrowed it down to polyethylene oxide.

I found this article and it states as follows?

"Polyethylene oxide is a nonionic hydrophilic polymer that is insoluble in alcohols. Upon contact with water it forms a viscous gel. Attempts to dissolve the tablets in liquid result in a gummy substance that cannot be injected or snorted. The tablets either do not break, or break into pieces that retain some controlled- release functionality. However, crushing followed by dissolution can release over 75% of the dose, depending on the solvent."

http://www.ohrdp.ca/wp-content/uploads/pdf/OxyNeoLetter.pdf

(it is on the first page under the 'What's New' section)


Does anybody know of a solvent that will dissolve it that can be easily removed from the solution for the intended purposes of injecting and or insufflation?

If I have broken any rules with this posting please feel free to do what needs to be done with this thread.

The oven method is fairly painless but I was just thinking maybe there is an easier method?

Thanks for reading through this,

-Ontariobuds

 

[sekio]

PEO is insoluble in effectively every common solvent, unfortunately. It's like trying to dissolve polyethylene, it's not going to happen.

 

[ontariobuds]

What about an uncommon solvent?

 

[sekio]

Such as what? Molten salts? Fuming sulfuric acid? Aqua regia? THF, DMSO, chloroform are good solvents for lower molecular weight polyethylene glycol (not PEO but related). But they may only swell/soften the PEO in OxyNeo. I have a feeling the polyethylene oxide in OxyNeo is high molecular weight stuff, and I know for a fact that Purdue picked the specific polymer they use to prevent solvent extraction of the oxycodone inside.

 

[ontariobuds]

Thank you for your input sekio. I generally do not take oxycodone because it is too expensive (we have generics here in Canada). The only oxycodone I take are the odd 30s and Percocet coupled with hydromorphone which are prescribed to me.

No worries on this end because I will take Hydromorphone over Oxycodone any day of the week!

-Ontariobuds

 

[clubcard]

PEG is a class of compound, not a specific one. Take a look at the patent on OxyNeo to see how the tamper-resistant pills are produced. Depending upon the specific PEG, polyethers will soften and eventually dissolve the PEG. Lots of solvent and lots of time and/or heat required. That they work is kind of a pointer to how they dissolve. On another planet many years ago, Oxymorphone SR tablets were defeated using ethanol (Everclear/Polish Spirit) and time. If you can plan 24 hours ahead, clearly you can misuse them. That doctors swapped from oxycodone to oxymorphone is just about the worst decision they could have made. While oxycodone is somewhat more potent when IVed is much less than oxymorphone that is x10 more potent when IVed.

That first-pass metabolism of phenol-baring opioids is a known and solved problem shows how little investment the companies making these drugs are prepared to put in. Replacing the -OH with a -C(O)NH2 (warning - 2 isomers) is now off-patent. Duration is also much longer so no need for SR.